As is known, an aircraft comprises a plurality of items of power equipment such as propulsion engines, non-propulsive engines, power sources, power converters and power storage devices.
All of these items of power equipment form the power network of the aircraft. There are multiple types of power, which take different forms such as electrical power, hydraulic power, pneumatic power and mechanical power.
In most aircraft, in particular twin-engine helicopters, the propulsive power of the engines is distributed in a uniform manner between the different engines to make the wear of the engines uniform.
In a three-engine helicopter, the pilot has the ability to voluntarily place an engine into standby during the non-critical phases of the flight in order to reduce the fuel consumption.
In other words, there are currently methods which are intended to optimise either the fuel consumption of the engines or the service life of the engines.
That said, these areas for optimisation are limited to some specific types of aircraft.
Furthermore, there are no methods which make it possible to optimise other parameters, such as the acoustic comfort inside the aircraft, the stealthiness of the aircraft, the responsiveness of the aircraft, the pollutant emissions of the aircraft, and generally any parameter which characterises the aircraft.
Furthermore, there are also no methods which allow optimised joint management of the propulsive and non-propulsive power of an aircraft. There are also no methods for optimising power between the different heat engines, electric motors or other engines of a propulsion system of an aircraft.
The inventors have thus sought to provide a method for optimised global management of a power network of an aircraft.